Even though the use and advantages of various rotary or pivoting storage devices applied to storage structures are known, there remain voids regarding desirable attributes pertaining to such rotary or pivoting storage devices, their methods of use, as well as solving and/or overcoming the underlining motives that prompts their use.
The following are related art examples of rotary or pivoting shelving systems for use in storage structures such as cabinets, refrigerators, and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,715 to Powder and U.S. Pat. No. 2,692,813 to Toronto disclose shelving systems that require a pivoting joint assembly capable of bearing essentially the full load of the mobile shelf and its contents. Such systems require complex, heavy-duty, space consuming, hardware. In addition, the refrigerator side walls must be capable or configured to accept such mounting hardware as well as possessing the strength to tolerate such loads.
Both U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,462 to Lee and U.S. Pat. No. 1,899,171 to Warren describe shelving systems that call for several regions of attachment or points of support, including a refrigerator side wall, back wall, and a required support joint type connection affixed to the refrigerator's front door. The required connection to the front door mandates that the load burden of the mobile shelf and its contents are manipulated by a user during every door opening episode. Furthermore, the entire contents residing on the shelf are removed from the climate controlled interior of the refrigerator to the outside environment during each door open/close cycle, compounding the opportunity for thermal loss, food spoilage, and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,823 to Maglinger discloses a shelving system that utilizes a pull-out drawer member incorporating a full round rotating storage container having a bottom with attached side walls. The container's circular shape results in a loss of available storage area in comparison to the available rectangular storage footprint where such a unit would typically reside. In addition, due to the absence of a home position (commonly lacking in full round rotating storage units), the relative arrangement of stored objects is not maintained from one visit to the next. Additionally, the apparatus creates an awkward accessibility scenario where the drawer unit must be maneuvered to the extreme forward extended position before complete accessibility to container contents, via a top opening, is possible.
The purpose of the present invention is to overcome several shortcomings in the aforementioned prior art as well as the introduction of additional novel features.